1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates generally to information processing systems and, more specifically, to processors whose logic is partitioned among a plurality of stacked dice.
2. Background Art
Electronic devices such as cellular telephones and notebook computers typically contain a number of integrated circuit (IC) packages mounted to a printed circuit board (PCB). IC packages typically include a single IC die on a substrate or leadframe. The die and substrate are encapsulated in a material such as plastic. The encapsulated packages are then mounted to another substrate such as a PCB. Various packaging approaches have been employed to improve performance for such electronic devices.
Multichip modules (MCM) are IC packages that can contain two or more “bare” or unpackaged integrated circuit dice interconnected on a common substrate. The size of the electronic device that uses MCMs can be reduced because MCMs typically have a number of individual IC dice mounted within a single package in a laterally adjacent manner.
System on a Chip (SoC) technology is the packaging of most or all of the necessary electronic circuits and parts for a “system” (such as a cell phone or digital camera) on a single IC die. For example, a system-on-a-chip for a sound-detecting device may include an audio receiver, an analog-to-digital converter, a microprocessor, memory, and input/output control logic on a single IC die.
Another type of IC package configuration that attempts to decrease the footprint and volume of the IC package is known as a Stacked Chip Scale Package (Stacked-CSP). The Stacked-CSP is essentially a space-efficient MCM, where multiple die are stacked (in a face-to-back orientation) and integrated into a single package. Stacked-CSP packaging allows manufacturers of mobile phones and other portable devices to make their products smaller by vertically stacking heterogeneous dice, such as stacking flash and SRAM (Static Random Access Memory) dice, within a single package. By utilizing Stacked-CSP products that vertically mount two or more heterogeneous IC dice in a single package, wireless devices may be generated to have lower cost, weight and board space than devices made of traditional single-die packages.